ALC215, Week 4: Innovators or Pirates?

The record label 'Illegal Art' is an independent label which focuses on the mashup and sampling genres. There are arguments that mashup artists are nothing more than pirates and thieves because they produce music almost exclusively through using the work of other artists, however I would argue that they are innovators and artists in their own right. This is because while they do use the work of other artists, they do so in such as way as they create their own new and unique works. 
Below is an excerpt from the copyright documentary Good Copy/Bad Copy where mashup artist Girl Talk discusses his creative process and creates a new work by remixing a song which was in itself a remix of an original recording.

 In the video Girl Talk (AKA Greg Gillis) talks about how he does give credit to every artist he uses, but argues that to actually license a sample would be far too costly and would cripple his ability to have a viable career. With this in mind, is a shift in thinking necessary when it comes to copyright law? Is the idea of musical copyright an antiquated notion in a world where media and audio technology are cheap, widely available and easy to use? Gillis thinks so, stating that 'I basically believe in that idea (of Fair Use), that if you create something out of pre-existing media, that’s transformative, that’s not negatively impacting the potential sales of the artist you’re sampling, if it’s not hurting them in some way, then you should be allowed to make your art and put it out there' (Kosner, 2012). 

This is without even mentioning the effect that peer to peer filesharing and torrent sites have had on how people access music in the first place. Examples of how the two come together to cause concern for the music industry can be seen in the developments of 'Grey Tuesday' where the widely acclaimed mashup of The Beatles' 'White Album' and Jay-Z's 'Black Album' (Danger Mouse's 'The Grey Album') was released for free download on mass, much to the chagrin of record labels and managers of the artists involved.

With all this in mind, do the rules surrounding music sampling and copyright need to be adjusted to reflect the times? Should we adopt the kind of fair use model that Gillis suggests?

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tjHj-f6gLkI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2l-dvU9tOw&list=PLrsVBazougi53WxEEZv60Fg9EGdCKtF91

Kosner, A 2012, Girl Talk's Greg Gillis on Copyright, Curation and Making Mashup Rhymes, retrieved 17/8/13. http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2012/10/07/girl-talks-gregg-gillis-on-copyright-curation-and-making-mashups-rhyme/ 

ALC215 Week 3: Globalization, Hip Hop and American Culture

I've always wanted to go to America (hopefully one day soon), part of it is because of my love for American sport, part of it is because I just want to see the world, and part of it is because I've always had a fascination in American Hip hop culture.While I am fully aware that culturally, the real America is a far from what is portrayed in music, music videos and movies, perpetuation of these cultural stereotypes has lead to my views (and I'm sure I'm not alone) being skewed from reality. This is because me as a consumer of media texts, especially as an impressionable child, I only see extrapolated, theatrical versions of what the reality of American society might actually look like.

I'll freely admit that my knowledge of (or lack thereof) American culture has been completely shaped by artists such as Ice Cube, Tupac and the Notorious BIG amongst many others, as well as film and television such as 8 Mile, Coming to America, White Men Can't Jump, He Got Game and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

 

Unambitiousus.com (2013)

However, representations through film, television and music very rarely stay true to real life. This is because film and television often rely on assumptions and stereotypes to make characters recognisable and relateable. Benshoff and Griffin explain these stereotypes as 'oversimplified and overgeneralised assumptions' which 'inevitably create erroneous perceptions about individuals' (Benshoff and Griffin, 2009, pp.42-43). These representations and stereotypes of gangsters, rappers and streetballers are fact to me, partly because I don't know any better having no actual experience to base my opinions on, and partly because these stereotypes are enforced to such a degree that they have almost become impenetrable parts of popular culture. 

 

http://www.defjam.com/artists/beastie-boys/

The rapper for example is almost always an African American male, laden with chains 'bling' and baggy clothing, and often associated with gangs. This stereotype is occasionally challenged by white artists such as Eminem or the Beastie Boys, however the stereotype still endures because it is still embedded in the psyche, and to an extent perpetuates itself when people recognize it and act accordingly.

References

Benshoff, H, Griffin S 2009, America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies, Blackwell Publishing, United Kingdom, pp.42-43.

ALC 201, Module 1, Topic 3, Surveilance Case study

Note to all ALC215 readers, this is work for another unit, by all means comment, but you won't be able to submit it.

 The recent release of Microsoft’s new Xbox One (the successor to the Xbox 360) has thrown up a couple of intriguing elements of electronic tracking and surveillance. Firstly there is an issue of activity and use tracking through a compulsory Internet tether for a daily check in, (which has now been scaled back), but primarily the controversy centres around the console's Kinect motion capture camera. As part of the Xbox One's perpetual standby mode, Kinect is always active, and picks up any movement, voice or hand movements, and beams footage back to Microsoft's central servers.

This is disturbing enough in and of itself, however when coupled with allegations made by American hacker Edward Snowden that all Microsoft products are equipped with a 'backdoor' which grants access to America's National Security Agency. This, you could argue is similar to the communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) which as Gates and Magnet (2007, p.281) explain as being an act that 'requires telecommunication carriers to design their equipment, facilities, and services to enable electronic surveillance'. One could argue that this is no different to allegations made by Snowden, and that NSA access is just another part of the modern surveillance society, however CALEA is written into law, and freely available to anyone to view, while the NSA's PRISM operation (detailed below) was run in complete secret, without the knowledge of the general public. 

Snowden paints a picture of an extremely effectively and sophisticated surveillance scheme, which can monitor every facet of everyday life, and while Xbox One's Kinect camera is only a small facet of this, having an omnipresent video recording capability built in to what is essentially a children's gaming device is something that many would view as a trivial and invasive perversion of their civil rights, especially considering at the time of release facts about where footage might end up and what it might be used for had not revealed.

It should be noted here that there has been no confirmation that any Kinect camera footage has been or is being monitored as part of the PRISM program, however the possibilities of such a system are pretty much endless. Furthermore, much has been made in the past about the 'threat' of surveillance, chiefly through the analysis of Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon, a concept of self-regulation, predicated on the idea someone 'could be' watching. The Panopticon was furthered by French sociologist Michel Foucault, who analyzed it as a way 'to arrange things that the surveillance is permanent in it's effects' (Foucault, 1977, p.201). This sentiment has now become very relevant again with Snowden's revelations that the American government has the potential capabilities to monitor a person's every single movement and connection. Does the concept of the Panopticon still ring true today, even if the medium has changed from a prison guard to a computer technician? Will the mental image of a dark room somewhere with hundreds of television monitors have any influence whatsoever on the human condition?
 

References

Foucault, M, 1977, 'Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison'. A. Sheridan, (Trans), Penguin, London,  p.201.

Gates, K, & Magnet, S 2007, 'Communication Research and the Study of Surveillance', Communication Review, 10, 4, Communication & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 12 August 2013.  p.281.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=5yB3n9fu-rM

Pazarino, M, 2013, 'Microsoft reverses course on Internet connection and used game policies of Xbox One', retrieved August 7, 2013, http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2013/06/19/microsoft-apparently-reverses-course-on-xbox-one-always-on-internet-connection-and-used-game-policies/ 

RT, 2013, 'Microsoft helped the NSA bypass encryption, new Snowden leak reveals' retrieved August 7, 2013, http://rt.com/usa/microsoft-nsa-snowden-leak-971/ 

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